1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed towards a multi-display sign assembly, which is particularly lightweight, may be made almost entirely of plastic, moves in a smooth or fluid manner, and may be made in a variety of sizes, thereby enabling the assembly to be effectively used to maximize advertising space in locations such as the side of a bus, on a wall, or any other location where a substantially heavy display assembly, or a rough moving assembly, could not be utilized.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Advertising sign assemblies are a very highly used means of passing on advertising messages to the general public. In fact, advertising displays may be found in practically all public locations where there is a free space. Accordingly, the advertising display art, and more particularly the multi-sided advertising display art is a particularly crowded art, wherein even the smallest variations may be of great significance.
Of particular success are sign displays which use triangular segments to enable three billboard type displays to be sequentially shown on a single structure. Beginning with the patent granted to Tetsuo Aoyama, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,170 granted Feb. 28, 1967, triangular, multi-faced indicators have been utilized, but have had highly complex inter-workings to regulate the turning of particular triangle portions, these many moving parts increasing the possibility of breakdown and the difficulty of repair. In an attempt to simplify the complicated sign construction, the patent to Werner U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,394, granted Jun. 11, 1968 utilized elongate triangular members. This assembly, however, utilized a plurality of gears to drive each individual triangular unit, thereby requiring a powerful motor and a means of regulating the display sequences, and was accordingly heavier and included many gears, which often move in a rough and erratic manner and are susceptible to derailment or breakage. In an attempt to reduce the large number of gears utilized to rotate traditional displays the reference to Ahlgren U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,859, granted Feb. 26, 1980 deviated from prior designs in that it utilized a series of interconnected belts in order to rotate each of the triangular units. This alternative means of driving and rotating the individual triangular units, while removing a large number of gears, could be easily susceptible to breakage of a particular belt, which would be very difficult to replace in such an occurrence, and would require a motor of substantially large power to drive the large number of interconnected belts. Additionally, multi-faced displays such as those in Abbema U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,027 and Ahlgren U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,763 have attempted to maximize the amount of advertising which may be displayed and facilitate the interchanging thereof, but do not address the problems and needs of the drive system. More particularly, past designs require additional timing controls to regulate the rate of rotation of the displays, utilize a large number of intricate workings, such as numerous belts or numerous gears, which often cause rough and/or erratic rotation of the triangle units, and require motors of larger sizes, all of which result in a higher frequency of malfunction or breakdown and make fixing the assembly much more complicated. Further, known displays are not easily adaptable for lightweight construction and smaller construction, thereby limiting their use to a traditional billboard type display. The device of the present invention attempts to overcome all of the deficiencies of the prior art by minimizing the number of small moving elements and utilizing primarily sturdy rigid means of interconnections which will minimize wear on the apparatus, be largely free from breakage, provide fluid motion, and be easily replaced and/or maintained. The assembly of the present invention provides a sign display which is much more effective and has many more uses than the traditionally known, more complex multi-faced displays known in the art.